But thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel. (Psalms 22:3)
Do you ever wonder if God looks down from heaven at our worship and thinks, “Huh..well isn’t that just…precious.” We stand there in our dimly lit sanctuaries and mumble some words while swaying to the beat of the music. Occasionally we throw in an ill-timed clap and expect the God of the universe to be pleased with the sweet smelling savor of our worship.
There is a passage of scripture that is used often in talking about worship — for good reason. There are some pretty intense “dos” and “do nots” there. In 2 Samuel 6, King David had it in his heart to bring the ark of the covenant home. In the Old Testament, the ark was a type of the tangible presence of the Almighty God. It had been left in the house of Obed-edom for months. Why do you ask, was it left there? Because the ark (or the Presence) was mishandled and someone died. Now I’m not saying that if you don’t worship you will be struck dead, but there are certainly consequences for half-hearted worship. Worship flows from a heart of gratefulness. My childhood pastor, Fulton Buntain, used to always say, “Things you appreciate tend to get better, things you depreciate tend to get worse.” Gratefulness attracts the goodness of God like a magnet.
Later on in 2 Samuel 6, David hears of the blessing that has fallen on Obed-edom because of presence of God and David desired to bring the ark home. There was some serious worship happening that day! Verse 16 tells us, “As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.” David was so overcome to have the presence of the Lord home that he threw off his kingly robes and became undignified to the point that his own wife despised him. Friends, we don’t have to retrieve the presence of God from anywhere. We carry Him within us, yet I doubt most worship today would cause a raised brow from the religious.
There is a story in 2 Kings 13 that has stuck with me. It’s a story of Elisha’s last days and a King who needed a miracle. Joash came to Elisha on his sickbed weeping because they were being threatened by Syria. Elisha told him to take his bow and shoot an arrow through the eastward window. He then told the king the arrow was God’s deliverance and that they would be delivered from the Syrians. Elisha gave him one more command. A command that I’m sure haunted Joash to the end of his days. “Take the arrows and smite them upon the ground.” The king takes the arrows and strikes three times. Elisha was incensed. Because the King struck only three times, instead of five or six he was only granted three victories against Syria and not a complete victory. I say again — there are consequences when we serve God half-hearted worship. Why was Elisha so angry, do you think? Maybe because he hadn’t done anything half-hearted in his entire life! When he was called to follow Elijah he burned everything and went. He left himself nothing to go back to. When Elijah entreated him to stay behind in certain places he would not, always staying by his master’s side. It is because of this dogged determination that Elisha ends up with a double portion of everything Elijah possessed. Give worship your all. Hold nothing back from God and He will hold nothing back from you! When he asks you to strike the ground with your arrows, turn them to dust.
I ran across this verse the other day in my Bible, “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel.” (Psalms 22:3 KJV) I’ve read that verse countless times, but this time I found myself thinking, “Man, if our praises are supposed to build Him a place of habitation, some of us have Him living in a lean-to.” It’s time for some major home improvements, my friends. It’s time for us to remind ourselves of Who He is. It’s time for us to give Almighty God — the God that spoke the world into being, the God that breathes out the stars, the God that caused the sun to stand still, the God that held nothing back from us, the God that sacrificed His one and only Son — That God! It’s time to offer Him some hefty, castle-building, turn your arrows to dust kind of worship!
Things Pondered 